Tag Archives: twitter

If you’re familiar with Twitter, you’re most likely familiar with #hashtags. There’s a lot that can done with the hashtag. When it comes to engagement and community, there’s something called the Twitter Party which can be quite beneficial for many reasons. It’s unlike the traditional definition of a party. A Twitter party consists of a moderated chat based around a series of questions. Unlike a traditional Twitter chats, which are generally reoccurring, a Twitter Party is a one time deal (or series) that’s hosted by a brand or company around a certain topic in which prizes are given out throughout the duration of the party.

Twitter parties can have many benefits for many reasons. The idea of the conversation isn’t to necessarily talk about the product or service itself, but more-so around the lifestyle based around it. For example, a Twitter party hosted by a mattress company wont talk about their beds, instead they talk about tips and tricks around sleeping and finding the perfect mattress. After all, that’s what it should be about in today’s world. The hard sell is out and relating to one’s personal lifestyle is in. It also provides some personality to the brand hosting the chat. The party usually has the moderator asking the questions and a couple of other people to help in engagement and choosing winners of the prizes.

The goals of the Twitter party may vary host to host, but the main ideas are to generate conversation, engagement, and maybe even a call to action. Some steps to preparing for a Twitter Party are as follows:

Choose your topic and create a hashtag. You want something not being used already, but that’s also relevant to the topic of the party. A unique hashtag will help with tracking later on. (Check out hashtracking to help with measuring tweets)

Create the questions. Five questions are generally the perfect number. It all depends on how much time you want to spend on the questions and how many people you think will be participating. Remember to stick to questions around the lifestyle and not about the actual product.

Choose your prizes. A prize for a rsvp, to the best answers and the best participants are usually the best way to award prizes. Gift cards or branded products are usually the best options for prizes.

Choose your date and time. Middle of week, 8pm EST is usually the best time. You need to think about the audience, time zones and when people might be out of work and already had dinner.

Announce the party. If you want time to grow hype around the party, I suggest up-to a month before hand. It’s gives people time to spread the word and add it to their calendar. Share it on your social networks and on your blog. Make it known that someone who RSVPs will win a prize. Make people excited and interested to join.

Prepare the day of. Make sure all your eggs are in one basket. Have a timeline set for all your questions, the time spent on them, and when prize announcements are being made. Depending on the topic, be prepared for any negative questions that may arise and how you want to handle them. It’s best to handle those apart from the chat and offer different means of support. Stick to the topic as much as possible.

Host the party. Have fun! After all, it is a party.

Analyze your results, look at your goals and expectations, see what went wrong and what went right.

Twitter parties a great way to build awareness and word of mouth on a cheap budget. They have the potential to generate a few thousand tweets with millions of impressions in just an hour’s time. If it’s successful, you might even be lucky enough to grab the trending hashtag on Twitter.

Are you social, do you consider yourself social? Ive been using Facebook since it began as college-only social media website. I’ve seen it grow and evolve over the years. It took on features of sites like MySpace, but also ignore annoying features as well. I’ve always tended to used it for people I knew personally. I still do personally. I don’t accept random friend requests. Occasionally I’ll go through a cleaning phase. These days I’ll follow fan pages and I’ll add/accept people I haven’t met personally, but they have to be crucial in some way. It’s going to be networking, giving and receiving in one way or another.

Twitter on the other and an entirely different platform in it’s own. Throughout I’ve done things and met people I probably couldn’t have met elsewhere. It’s a world that’s becoming more socially connected everyday, you can meet about anyone. I do mean anyone, not everyone. Anyone in the sense of all walks of life. Through these connections, a lot is possible. Finding people doing the things you want to is bonus as well as those doing the same. It’s a great way to learn about the personal lives of those who inspire you, granted they’re using the same channel you do. Hey, you might be surprised what you learn about someone. Sure, a lot of people talk about nonsense on Twitter. I try to stick to meaningful banter. I recommend the same unless your someone in the spotlight people obsess over. Otherwise people won’t care. I’ve unfollowed plenty of people who’s nonsense got annoying over and over.

The point is, meet people, search for people. There is opportunity out there if you’re reaching out to the right people. I’ve met some pretty amazing people through social media channels, some at places i would love to work for in my time. You of course should have a good resume to show before trying to get in somewhere you’re not qualified. Then you look like a fool for trying too hard. Use the resources available to you. Network within your industry.

Its not always about how good you are, its about who you know. Sometimes the key to landing an amazing job is through networking, connections with people connected to your industry. If someone knows you and what you do, that can be easily used to help land you an amazing job if they know someone who can hire you. In the old days, making connections and networking wasn’t as easy as it is today. Social media makes networking a lot easier then you may think. Twitter is probably one of the biggest tools you can use to network. LinkedIn can be a great tool as well as well as jibe. Jibe is still fairly new and growing. Jibe is a tool used to leverage your already created profiles in both Facebook and LinkedIn. Twitter I believe is that initial tool to get you connected where you might want to be. The point is, you have to try. Sometimes living in cities like NY can be a bonus if you find events to go to, some sponsored by MeetUp, I’ll get to that later.

Lets start with Twitter. Twitter allows you to follow those that inspire you, people that are part of networks you want to be in, that work in the same industry. Your goal is to follow them and read what they’re saying, follow their links. Twellow is a website created to make yellow pages of Twitter accounts so you can search what kind of people you might want to follow. Once you’re following people, you need to start engaging. Respond to what they’re saying, retweet what they say if its inspiring to you. You need to create lists of those that inspire you. Try and create a single personality for yourself. If you like social media, talk about it, follow those who do the same, engage and post similar things, create a Twellow account, put yourself out there. In doing this, you’ll eventually meet people. Make yourself interesting, say things people will want to listen to. Over time I’ve gotten in touch with people I would have never thought possible. Once following people and they’re following you back, you can then dm them and hopefully build better relationships and make connections. It works, just try.

Another great way to network is through MeetUp. MeetUp is a community based on small niche based communities. It allows for people in social networks to create events based on similar interests. If you like dogs, search for an event relating to dog lovers. If you don’t see one, create one and hopefully people will find it and attend as well. Promote it. Its a great way to build community with those around you with similar interests and network while doing it. Don’t be afraid of going out and meeting new people. Be optimistic, outgoing and friendly.

Sure, you might have a great portfolio/resume, but it can help a lot by knowing the right people. There are other ways to to network as well. Take the time to do the research, grow, educate yourself and learn. It takes time to make to grow your network, it doesn’t happen overnight. The big thing is trying, you’ll never know if you don’t try.

Everyone wants to try and leverage social media to help their marketing, advertising and P.R. teams get the jump on tomorrow. Well, hopefully everyone, because it is powerful. The first thing is making sure you have the right person for the job. While some people claim to be so-called gurus, they’re only actual experience is playing at home with their own facebook or Twitter. There is a lot more behind the cover, and a good deal to learn before trying your hand at working it. You have to learn the difference between the platforms and how they’re used seperately. To some, Facebook and Twitter might seem similar and you might want to be posting the exact same thing on both platforms. The truth is, they’re meant to be two seperate entities.

Facebook, the big boy on campus, with 500 million followers and growing is a much larger, multi-purpose platform . Starting out as a social network for colleges where you could share photos and messages as well as contact info, has grown into one of the largest mediums of advertising and marketing in the world. These days, more people are visting a brand’s Facebook page rather then their actual website. This is somewhat the purpose of Facebook. Its a way to create communication and share about anything and everything. Between brand and consumer the two can interact seamlessly. With everything from company updates, media, press releases, applications, in app purchases and more, its a powerhouse of sorts. Facebook is meant to the be the face of the brand. You “like” pages of brands and celebrities. There is no following back from them. Facebook is more so a social playground. Its not something you really want to use for news or a professional profile, not that you can’t. Leave that stuff to sites like LinkedIn and even Twitter.

Twitter on the other hand was designed as a microblog. You have 140 characters to say whatever you want including a link. Now with Twitter 2.0, you can share media and it doesn’t hurt your character count. Twitter is meant to be a newsfeed where information is shared. The message needs to be short and straight to the point. It also has to be unique and enticing if you want to draw people to it. In Twitter you can follow whoever and if they choose, can follow you back, whether its a brand, celebrity or average Joe. With the incorporation of hashtags, users are allowed to create trends in which twitter follows and posts. A trend is a topic a lot of people are relaying over and over. You also can retweet and reply. There are plenty of sites used to measure your reach, influence and many other metric of a twitter account. You tend to retweet things you enjoy, and people do the same to do. You also want to @reply to people as well. All together it helps you grow. Twitter is a great medium for networking and making connections you wouldn’t elsewhere. As you retweet and mention people, they notice and see and hopefully, will start following you or will mention you back. I’ve found this a great way to get in touch with some of my favorite inspirations.

Some people get the mistake that Twitter is merely posting a message every little miniscule thing you do during your day. This is a misconception, don’t believe everything you see or hear. People do that, thats what you want to ignore. Take a more serious approach with, You can have fun with it, its not meant to be strictly business. If you’re looking for connections in your industry, its a great start. With sites like Twellow, you can search for people doing the same thing you do in your area, or maybe where you want to live. Follow them, respond to their tweets and see where it leads. Follow your favorite bloggers, writers, news sites, brands, etc. Grow from it and learn.